Senegal, country of sub-Saharan West Africa. Located at the westernmost point of the continent and served by multiple air and maritime travel routes, Senegal is known as the “Gateway to Africa.” The country lies at an ecological boundary where semiarid grassland, oceanfront, and tropical rainforest converge; this diverse environment has endowed Senegal with a wide variety of plant and animal life. It is from this rich natural heritage that the country’s national symbols were chosen: the baobab tree and the lion.

The region today known as Senegal was long a part of the ancient Ghana and Djolof kingdoms and an important node on trans-Saharan caravan routes. It was also an early point of European contact and was contested by England, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands before ultimately coming under French control in the late 19th century. It remained a colony of France until 1960, when, under the leadership of the writer and statesman Léopold Senghor, it gained its independence—first as part of the short-lived Mali Federation and then as a wholly sovereign state.

Although Senegal traditionally has been dependent on peanuts (groundnuts), the government has had some success with efforts to diversify the country’s economy. Even so, the country suffered an economic decline in the 20th century, owing in some measure to external forces such as the fall in value of the African Financial Community (Communauté Financière Africaine; CFA) franc and the high cost of debt servicing, as well as to internal factors such as a rapidly growing population and widespread unemployment.

Almost one-half of Senegal’s people are Wolof, members of a highly stratified society whose traditional structure includes a hereditary nobility and a class of musicians and storytellers called griots. Contemporary Senegalese culture, especially its music and other arts, draws largely on Wolof sources, but the influences of other Senegalese groups (among them the Fulani, the Serer, the Diola, and the Malinke) are also evident. Wolof predominate in matters of state and commerce as well, and this dominance has fueled ethnic tension over time as less-powerful groups vie for parity with the Wolof majority.

The most important city in Senegal is its capital, Dakar. This lively and attractive metropolis, located on Cape Verde Peninsula along the Atlantic shore, is a popular tourist destination. Although the government announced plans to eventually move the capital inland, Dakar will remain one of Africa’s most important harbours and an economic and cultural centre for West Africa as a whole.

Senegal is home to several internationally renowned musicians and artists. Other aspects of Senegalese culture have traveled into the larger world as well, most notably Senghor’s espousal of Negritude—a literary movement that flourished in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and that emphasized African values and heritage. Through events such as the World Festival of Negro Arts, first held in Senegal in 1966, and institutions such as the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa (Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire; IFAN) and the Gorée Island World Heritage site, Senegal honours Senghor’s dictum "We must learn to absorb and influence others more than they absorb or influence us."

Relief

Senegal is a flat country that lies in the depression known as the Senegal-Mauritanian Basin. Elevations of more than about 330 feet (100 metres) are found only on the Cape Verde Peninsula and in the southeast of the country. The country as a whole falls into three structural divisions: the Cape Verde headland, which forms the western extremity and consists of a grouping of small plateaus made of hard rock of volcanic origin; the southeastern and the eastern parts of the country, which consist of the fringes of ancient massifs (mountain masses) contiguous with those buttressing the massif of Fouta Djallon on the Guinea frontier and which include the highest point in the country, reaching an elevation of 1,906 feet (581 metres) near Népen Diakha; and a large but shallow landmass lying between Cape Verde to the west and the edges of the massif to the east.

Washed by the Canary Current, the Atlantic coast of Senegal is sandy and surf-beaten. Like the rest of the country, it is low except for the Cape Verde Peninsula, which shelters Dakar, one of the finest ports in Africa. The surf is less heavy on the coast south of the peninsula, whereas the coast south of the Saloum River consists of rias (drowned valleys) and is increasingly fringed with mangroves.

Drainage

The country is drained by the Sénégal, Saloum, Gambia (Gambie), and Casamance rivers, all of which are subjected to a monsoonal climatic regime—i.e., a dry season and a rainy season. Of these rivers, the Sénégal—which was long the main route to the interior—is the most important. The river rises in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea and, after traversing the old massifs, rapidly drops downward before reaching Senegalese territory. At Dagana it forms the so-called False Delta (or Oualo), which supplies Lake Guier on the south (left) bank. At the head of the delta is the town of Richard-Toll (the “Garden of Richard”), named for a 19th-century French nursery gardener. The slope of the land is so gentle on this stretch of the river that, at times of low water, salty seawater flows about 125 miles (200 km) upstream. The island on which the town of Saint-Louis stands, near the mouth of the river, is situated about 300 yards (270 metres) from the sea in the False Delta; the river’s true mouth lies 10 miles (16 km) to the south. In the southern half of the country, estuaries are muddy and salty, with marshy saline depressions known as tannes occurring occasionally.

Soils

Despite its apparent uniformity, Senegal contains a great diversity of soils. These fall generally into two types—the valley soils and those found elsewhere.

The soils of the Sénégal and Saloum river valleys in their middle courses are alluvial and consist of sandy loams or clays. Near the river mouths the soils are salty and favourable for grazing. Similar conditions are associated with the Gambia and Casamance rivers, except near their mouths the banks are muddy, whereas their upper courses have sandy clay soils.

Many types of soils are found throughout the country. In the northwest the soils are ochre-coloured and light, consisting of sands combined with iron oxide. These soils, called Dior soils, constitute the wealth of Senegal; the dunes they form are highly favourable to peanut cultivation, whereas the soils between the dunes are suitable for other food crops, such as sorghum. In the southwest the plateau soils are sandy clays, frequently laterized (leached into red, residual, iron-bearing soils). The centre and the south of the country are covered by a layer of laterite hidden under a thin covering of sand that affords only sparse grazing during the rainy season. In the Casamance area heavily leached clay soils with a high iron-oxide content predominate, suitable for cultivation regardless of their depth.

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